Don’t get me wrong, Pride and Prejudice, the perennial favorite, is amazing. Elizabeth is the bookish, sharp witted heroine that we all want to be, and Darcy is the brooding hunk (Kate Beaton has an excellent set of comics on this) with an appreciation for bookish, sharp witted women that we all pine for.

But I always had a soft spot for Anne. Shy and self- sacrificing, I found her journey more interesting in that she learned to stand up to people (especially her crappy family) and fight for her happy ending. And Captain Wentworth is just woof. Honorable and able to see Anne for who she really is, and forgiving? Yes and please. So all this is to say that I had pretty high expectations for this book.

I was not disappointed.

This book was delightful. It was one where I felt warm and fuzzy reading it, like returning to an old favorite but with new surprises. At a few points I made a girly squeal because of the cuteness of something that happened. It was well paced, and the writing was breezy without feeling superficial.

I loved the college setting. It evoked and environment of brick buildings and fall leaves and most importantly, BOOKS. Books were almost a character unto themselves (only to be expected from a retelling), even representing the state of the relationship between Anne and Adam. It also worked well for the placement of the characters in terms of career and love life, like Adam becoming the president of the university, or Rick being a writer in resident (like a soldier wintering for the season! So clever).

Also, Anne was a scholar of women writers who was constantly having to defend why they deserved to be studied. I loved this inclusion of the struggles of women in academia and the literary world.

In terms of the retelling aspect, the book actually combined a little bit of Persuasion with elements of Pride and Prejudice. This is evident in the character of Rick, who is something of a Wickham. He was delightfully despicable. I’m not sure who Larry, Anne’s good friend represented, but he was wonderful and brought great humor to the story.

The only thing I didn’t like was that there weren’t enough interactions with Adam, in terms of rebuilding the tension between them that leads up to the end. The story focused more on her relationship with Rick and her friend Larry, which is fine, but I feel like I needed to see Adam and Anne together more, learning about the people they have become and thus that they are even more in love with each other than ever. I also felt like there needed to be a little bit more of Dr. Russell’s character. In Persuasion Lady Russell is directly responsible for Anne and Wentworth’s parting, and I wanted to see more of that pressure behind this Anne’s decision to end it with Adam.

This is definitely going to be put on myself with other favorite retellings like The Madwoman Upstairs, and right next to Persuasion, so that I can look at my own library and smile.

Excitement Level: Five Austenesque stars

Disclaimer: I was not paid for this review. I received a copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.